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Lens orientalis

Lens orientalis is a wild relative of Lens culinaris with lanceolate stipules. The geographical distribution of Lens orientalis ranges from Turkey to Uzbekistan with a primary habitat of stony and gravelly niches where aggressive annuals are not successful1. Lens orientalis usually forms small disjunct populations containing a small number of plants in sparse stands1. More extensive populations of L. orientalis were found at high elevations (800 to 2,000 m)1. Recent sequence analysis indicates that Lens orientalis is in the primary gene pool of L. culinaris2

Development of improved lentil cultivars well-adapted to the local environment is an on-going process in the breeding program and is critical for long-term genetic gain. Recent climate instability adds another layer of complexity to breeding efforts. Continued genetic improvement of lentil will, therefore, involve the introduction of new alleles that extend beyond the existing adapted pool of germplasm. Our goal in AGILE is to enhance the productivity and quality of Canadian lentils by expediting the expansion of genetic diversity of the Canadian lentil germplasm base with the use of genomic technologies.

Lentil seed is a good source of phenolic compounds, which can have health benefits. This project will try to find how different seed coat colours in lentil can be related to the phenolics profile. A fast extraction method and an optimized LC-MS analysis were applied to compare green, gray, tan, and brown seed coat colour lentils. Also, the so called zero-tannin genotypes were compared with the normal ones based upon their phenolic profile. The effect of storage on phenolic profile of lentil seeds was investigated, as well.

Lentil has been grown commercially in western Canada since 1970. Ascochyta lentis, the causal agent of ascochyta blight of lentil is established as one of the most economically important diseases of lentil in Western Canada. To deal with this problem, the widely acceptable genetic improvement strategy is to pyramid resistance genes. Developing closely linked single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for resistance genes is prerequisite for pyramiding resistance genes. To develop SNP markers, a series of selected recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations derived from resistant sources will be phenotyped under greenhouse conditions (pathogenicity tests) followed by screening available SNP markers across the entire set of RIL populations.